


We Make a Match

by dasfreefree, imagine_that_haikyuu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Female!Reader - Freeform, First Meetings, Fluff, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24634858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasfreefree/pseuds/dasfreefree, https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagine_that_haikyuu/pseuds/imagine_that_haikyuu
Summary: For your entire life, you've known your soulmate's every mood without knowing anything else about them. That all changes the day you watch Bokuto play volleyball for the first time.
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 116
Collections: oc self insertSI





	We Make a Match

**Author's Note:**

> This scenario was originally posted on December 25, 2016 to our [tumblr](https://imagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com/post/154936601188/since-request-are-open-what-about-bokuto-falling). Some edits have been made since then.
> 
> Writer: Rachel Lauren
> 
> Anonymous said: Since request are open, what about Bokuto falling for someone extremely shy and introverted but he manages to catch her heart... (im like that and i am head over heels for this owlhead)
> 
> Anonymous said: Can i ask for a soulmate au (preferably matching tattoo but any soulmate au) with bokuto and his complete opposite being a match?
> 
> Soulmate!AU: where your tattoo is like a mood ring, it changes its color depending on what your soulmate is feeling at the moment and you’re not sure exactly what rainbow means ([source](http://silentpeaches.tumblr.com/post/125291322610/soulmate-au-story-ideas)). In this AU, everyone’s soulmate tattoos are different depending on who you are (e.g., some have matching tattoos, some have countdown timers, etc.) also used [this](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fjewelry.lovetoknow.com%2Fimage%2F139118%7EMood-Ring-Color-Chart.gif&t=YTI5MmY5OTk4NzRiMDVkNTZhN2NiMDkyM2Y5NjQ5ZDk1Mzc4ZWNhNSx5eTFhNUQzag%3D%3D&b=t%3AQMY9StLbU_zUYGyZXON56w&p=https%3A%2F%2Fimagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154936601188%2Fsince-request-are-open-what-about-bokuto-falling&m=0) mood ring color chart for reference. I tried to mention or imply what each color means the first time it’s brought up, but be sure to refer to it as needed.

“(F/N)! Your tattoo! It’s rainbow!” your friend Aiko exclaims. She points to the circle on the back of your right hand, her mouth slightly agape.

You stare down at your tattoo. It takes up most of your skin there, but you’re used to it being colored only solid hues. This is the first time it’s ever been more than one color, let alone all of them. You wonder if maybe it’s similar to how when you get an actual mood ring too wet, it stops working. But that can’t be right either; they just turn black when that happens. You fling your hand a few times to see if it the tattoo will reset itself, so to speak, like you might do when a pen’s running low on ink. However, the vibrant gradient display remains.

“What do you think it means?” you ask nervously.

“You don’t know?” she questions with a raised eyebrow.

Given that your tattoo is one of the rarer kinds, and you haven’t met anyone else who found their soulmate with a mood ring marker, you have no idea what this signifies. You only shake your head in response.

“Well, my cousin has that tattoo as well. He said it turned rainbow just a few hours before he first met his fiancée,” Aiko explains excitedly. She places her hands upon your shoulders and gives you a few easy shakes. “(F/N), you’re going to meet your soulmate today!”

“That means it could be anyone in this venue.” The words come out with a slight creak as you say this.

Heat rises to your face and the anxiety makes your hands tremble. You’re starting to silently curse at yourself for enjoying being a volleyball spectator too much, and even more so for hoping that it could be possibly be one of the players in the tournament. No, it would be more likely that your soulmate is just another fan in the gymnasium, probably here to cheer on their school’s team.

Besides, how would you even bring yourself to talk to them? You had enough trouble talking to new people regardless of them being your soulmate. Your gaze returned to your tattoo—which was still rainbow—but the orange hues widened, condensing the other colors within the perimeter of the circle.

“I don’t understand…” you murmur. You hold your hand up to Aiko and she smiles widely.

“From what my cousin said, your tattoo will be rainbow from the day you meet them on, but you’ll still be able to see their emotions. Whatever they’re feeling, the corresponding color will be more prominent than the others on the spectrum.”

Orange: they’re eager to try something new and exciting. You ponder if they’re looking down on their hand now and seeing gray pushing the rest of their rainbow to the edges of their tattoo: an indication that you’re a bit uneasy. Unfortunately, you don’t have a lot more time to try and figure this all out. The next round of matches is about to start—and given that some of them feature powerhouse schools—the two of you have to rush to get seats before they all fill up. You manage to find open spots high up in the stands. They’re a little too far away for your liking. You usually try to get a spot somewhere in the middle, close enough to see the match clearly but far enough away so you blend in with the rest of the crowd.

Aiko and you sit just as the two teams are lining up to bow before the match starts.

“Um, (F/N)?” Aiko calls, nudging you with her elbow. You look to her while she points a finger down at the court. “Look at the Fukurodani captain.”

You turn your attention immediately to the court, squinting to find the boy in question. Sure enough, you find the one with his jersey number underlined. It’s hard to tell from where you are, but you notice the marking on his hand: it’s round like yours and currently displays a range of colors not unlike yours.

Your eyes widen and you can hear your heart thumping in your chest. It has to be a fluke. Perhaps he just happens to have your type of tattoo, but isn’t necessarily your soulmate. His could be somewhere else in the venue, or even elsewhere if he meets them later in the day, and all of this is pure coincidence. You can’t even tell from where you’re seated if the color most prominently featured at the moment would match your current anxiety anyway.

But Aiko might be able to.

“Which color stands out most?” you ask, your voice shaking.

She’s smiling widely while she tries to get a good glimpse at his hand. It’s difficult given that the set has already started and trying to see his hand not in motion is pretty much impossible, but in the next moment she answers, “It looks kind of like a mustard yellow? Maybe, gold is a better way to put it.”

Gold: this one is complicated, but it can mean someone is surprised, or nervous, among other things. You would be lying if you said that both of those didn’t describe your current state. Aiko wouldn’t have made it up either. As far as you were concerned, she didn’t know what the colors meant and whether or not it would have matched up to how you were feeling. Your eyes fall once more to your tattoo. A reddish-orange tone takes up most of the mark.

They’re feeling high energy and daring, which makes perfect sense for someone who’s mid-match.

You blush, covering your face with your hands and leaning back into the seat. It creaks when you sink into it.

“Oh, his looks a lot browner now,” Aiko comments. “What does that mean?”

“Unless his soulmate is feeling the exact same way I do now, it means that it’s definitely me,” you cry.

She practically shrieks with excitement, earning judgmental looks from those nearby. While she rummages through her bag to pull out the tournament program, you remain in the same position, unwilling to look at anything beyond the gaps between your fingers. Aiko has to pry your hands from your face to get you to look at the booklet.

“That’s him. Number four: Bokuto Koutarou. A wing spiker, and Fukurodani’s ace and captain,” she explains. You take the program from her and read over his name, trying to settle the nerves in your stomach. “Wait, didn’t they go to Nationals the past few years?”

So much for trying to settle your nerves. An ace player who’s been to Nationals? Your soulmate? How does this add up?

Matter only get worse when the person in front of you turns around, apologizing for eavesdropping, but is genuinely curious as to how you don’t know about him already.

“Bokuto is one of the top five aces in the country,” they mention. “Sure, he’s not in the top three like Sakusa Kiyoomi, but he’s a pretty big deal nonetheless.”

Oh, _sure_. It wasn’t enough that someone as shy and introverted as you is destined to be with someone who isn’t just a great and seemingly charismatic volleyball player. No, he has to be one of the best in the country too. Opposites may attract but this is almost unfair.

It’s all still hard to believe, so you keep an eye on your tattoo throughout the match to be absolutely sure. The colors check out to what you could guess Bokuto was feeling. When the featured colors move from gray and then to white in a matter of only a few moments, you look to the court with concern. These are signs of elevating frustration, but one look at your presumed soulmate after being blocked again tells you that this is exactly what’s going on with him.

“So, that’s happening now, huh?” the person in front you says to the person next to them. “The infamous ‘Dejected Mode’ right in the middle of the second set.”

“Eh, they’ll be fine. He usually snaps out of it quickly,” the other remarks with a shrug.

Much to your assurance, they were right. After a couple of minutes the color moves again from brown, to blue-green aligning with the fact that his setter finally tosses to him again, and he lands an amazing spike.

It’s only at the end of the match—when the last point lands in Fukurodani’s favor—that you wonder if he’s even noticed his own tattoo’s colors. Aiko let you know throughout when the colors altered dramatically enough on his for her to see, and they all lined up perfectly with your state of emotions. It was likely he didn’t pay them much mind, especially if he needed to focus on the game rather than how you were feeling, even if you are fated to meet within the day. You don’t get much time to worry about that, though, as your friend grabs you by the arm and pulls you out into the hallway of the gymnasium before the rest of the crowd begins to move.

“You can’t just _not_ meet him now,” she urges. “We’ll wait for them to come through here!”

You want to argue against her idea, as you’re hardly prepared to confront the person you’re destined to connect with, but you’ve been thinking about it since the moment you realized your tattoo changed: you were bound to meet him today anyway, it was only a matter of when exactly. Fighting the butterflies in your stomach, you relax in her grip.

And so the two of you sit on one of the cushioned benches in the hall and wait.

~*~

“I was curious, Bokuto, if you noticed your hand during the match today,” Akaashi says.

Bokuto is mid-stretch, top half of his body doubled over as his fingers touch the floor. His voice is somewhat strained from the position as he asks, “My hand?”

“Well, your tattoo specifically,” Akaashi elaborates. As he says this, Bokuto is already checking the back of his hand.

The circle there has always been a solid color. Sometimes, it’s a blend of other colors to indicate multiple emotions at once, such as a reddish orange or a yellow-green, but this is the first time it’s ever been every color at once.

“What the?” he murmurs, straightening up. He flicks his wrist a few times, thinking it might return to normal. The rainbow remains for the most part, but the interior of the shape is engulfed mostly by a dark pinkish-orange hue, a dark salmon would describe it better. “Wait, do you know what this means?”

He shoves his hand limply towards his teammate, completely contrasting the excited tone in his question. Akaashi draws himself away from Bokuto’s hand and shoots the ace a glare. Just as he opens his mouth to answer in the negative—and also to request that he not shove his hand towards others like that—Bokuto cuts him off.

“It means we’re going to meet today! They could be here somewhere!” Bokuto grasps his wrist enthusiastically taking note of the emphasized color: wherever his soulmate is, they must know it too if they’re feeling a mixture of excitement, romantic interest, and nervousness all at once. “I have to go find them!”

He darts out of the small gym before anyone can stop him, not even his coach snapping at him to stretch properly before running off like that. Akaashi only sighs, thankful that his captain was too focused to notice during the game earlier and even more thankful no one else said anything. At least, that match was their last today.

But the setter smiles, nonetheless, albeit a small one: it’s only right to be glad when a friend finds their soulmate.

Once in the hallways, Bokuto slows down to glance at the hands of every person he passes. None of them appear to have a rainbow-colored marking, let alone one that highlighted the colors that he knew would reflect his present emotions. As each hand comes up blank or with entirely unrelated markings, he feels his enthusiasm fade. He wonders if maybe he should turn around and head back, and that’s when he would find them, or even as he and his team headed out to go back to school for their meeting. Just as he considers this, he notices two girls seated on a bench against the wall of the perpendicular hallway in the distance. The girl on his left is staring at the back of her hand while the other leans over to glance at it too.

~*~

“What does that mean?” Aiko asks. The accentuated colors were a vibrant coral only minutes ago, letting you know that there was a good chance he finally realized that you were going to meet soon, but now dulled ever-so-slightly with a hint of gray.

“Well, he’ still excited about the possibility of love, but he feels some nerves or stress,” you describe. You wonder why gray, though, and not brown. Gray would indicate frustration more than anxiety, and in a situation like this, the latter makes more sense than the former. But in the next instant, the bright coral hue returns and even looks redder, if only a little bit.

You look up for no reason in particular, but your jaw drops enough for you to let out an, “Um.”

Bokuto Koutarou stands only a few meters away from where you’re seated. He glances at the back of his hand and then to you, then back to his hand. You clench your jaw and turn your hand around so your tattoo faces him. When he looks at you again, he does the same: there’s a rainbow on his hand, but the color you see best on it is a muddy pink.

It makes perfect sense.

There’s a skeptical look on his face and he approaches with an eager step. You rise from your seat, but find it impossible to move much more. Thankfully, his long legs have carried him to you before you can worry much about that.

The silence is tense between you. You’d like to say something, but have no idea where to begin. Initiating conversation was never your forte in the first place, but now this was only amplified by the fact that you were destined to love the boy right there in front of you. Your throat hasn’t felt this dry since you ran out of water while playing outside in the summer as a child. He mostly eyes you with that skeptical look, but there also a sense of childlike bewilderment in his expression. It’s as if he can’t believe you’re really standing before him, and you find his face rather endearing.

“Are you…?” he finally asks.

You nod a few times, eyes focused somewhere on the ground. You can’t bring yourself to look at him for more than a few seconds at a time. “I-I think so.”

He stares down at his tattoo again and lets out a wry laugh. “You know it’s weird. For the past seventeen years, I’ve known nothing about you other than what you were feeling at any given moment. I thought a lot about what I might say when I finally found you but, I suddenly can’t remember anything I came up with.”

You nod again knowingly. “That’s how it’s been on my end too, but I could never think of anything good at the time. Even when I found out your name and where you go to school today and that you play volleyball, I still couldn’t come up with anything interesting. Well, I mean, you can probably tell regardless of the tattoo that I’m a kind of a ball nerves right now.” You gulp and the dryness in your throat becomes apparent again.

“Well, uh, maybe I could learn your name too? That’s a good start,” he suggests.

“Oh! Right, um, I’m (F/N).”

“(F/N),” he repeats. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks up in consideration. There’s a grin tugging at his lips as he starts to nod to himself. “(F/N)… It goes pretty well with my last name, don’t you think?”

It takes a second to register what he just said, but once you realize that he’s already talking about _marriage_ of all things, your face heats up and you cover it with your hands

“Oh my god,” Aiko snorts. You almost forgot your friend was still behind you and bearing witness to all of this, much to your embarrassment. She sighs when you emit high-pitched groan from behind your hands. “Alright, I leave you two alone for now. (F/N), I’ll be by the entrance when you’re done, okay?”

After she leaves, you’re able to compose yourself enough to remove your hands from your face. As you lower them, you notice the dominant color on your tattoo. It’s a dark blue, which comes as little surprise to you: anyone would be interested in love when presented with their soulmate. You look to the marking on his hand, most of his circle a similar color but tinted brown.

“Hey, I have to head out soon. We have a meeting back at school, but are you free tomorrow?” he asks. “Our first match is at ten, but I hope you come again to cheer me on. Maybe after we could go on a date!”

No, you’re certainly not used to this. You sputter out noises until you finally manage to squeak out an, “Okay!”

Bokuto insists on exchanging cell phone numbers before you part ways. It all feels so surreal, finally meeting the person you’ve been monitoring emotion-wise for the past seventeen years of your life who you are also meant to love. While you type your name and number into his phone, your hands shake at this prospect. It takes a few tries to press the right keys and make sure your information is correct.

It’s not long after you reunite with Aiko and start to make your way home that your phone buzzes in your pocket. His name appears on your screen, surrounded by strings of heart emojis. Your heart is sent aflutter at his boldness, but at the same time, his sheer determination is intriguing.

He forgot to mention how cute you are before, but he had to tell you right away and he’ll definitely be sure to tell you in person tomorrow. He’s also really happy that most of his tattoo is dark blue right now. Aiko laughs when she notices the shy smile on your face as you read his text.

So this is how it begins.


End file.
